The Enemy Unseen...
In the Winter of El Niño, a violent storm shatters the tranquility of a small, uninhabited atoll south of Vanua Levu in the Fiji Islands. Amidst the chaos, death washes ashore, quietly settling on the bleached sand. A mysterious, ancient vessel, adrift for millennia, reluctantly releases its deadly secrets on this fateful February night.
Maggie and Brad Montana, fledgling associate professors on a long-awaited vacation in Fiji, stumble upon the aftermath of the storm. They discover a pearl-black cone at the water's edge, unveiling two bizarre instruments that set them on a worldwide quest for discovery. The journey takes them to the alien landscape of the Devil's Marbles in the Northern Territory of Australia, guided by Backpack Bill, a charismatic local tour guide.
As the Montanas unravel the secrets of the cone, their pursuit unwittingly triggers an ancient alien trap, revealing Earth's intellectual threshold to a distant star system. In a maddening environment, the couple deciphers a death message, inadvertently initiating a time-delayed sequence for the obliteration of the planet.
Hope dwindles as the Montanas grapple with their spatial sepulcher, attempting to halt the countdown. Just when all seems lost, Backpack Bill stumbles upon the ancient portal, inadvertently unlocking their prison. The Montanas emerge to find themselves in a changed world, their wristwatch showing a mere fifteen minutes elapsed since their imprisonment, while the calendar declares it is now 2023.
The couple, shocked by the four-year gap, must navigate a world transformed in their absence. Unsure if the sequence for termination continued after their release, the Montanas face the daunting task of reclaiming their lives amidst the echoes of time. Death Message explores ancient mysteries, the resilience of the human spirit, and the uncharted territories of a future shaped by the unintended consequences of their extraordinary journey.
**COMPLETED**
Several years after the world succumbed to a deadly strain of measles that turned those infected into crazed, mindless cannibals, Charlotte wanders the backroads alone, content with surviving day-to-day.
That is until she crosses paths with Nate and his daughter, Emmi. Emmi is not and cannot be vaccinated against the disease, so the only way to protect her and give her some kind of life is to reunite her with her estranged mother in a quarantine zone on the other side of the country.
Charlotte wants nothing to do with Nate or the girl who looks like her dead sister. She does not want to go through the grief of losing people again if something bad was to happen. And something bad does happen when Emmi is kidnapped, and it is no one's fault but Charlotte's.
Through this obligation alone, Charlotte feels like it is her responsibility to get Emmi back, to right her wrong. In helping Nate pursue his kidnapped daughter, Charlotte inadvertently allows herself to feel again, to care for those other than herself.
But with the clock ticking, Charlotte's new found family may just end up like her own, dead and destroyed, if Emmi is exposed to the disease that her father tried so hard to protect her from.